World Celebs of Viet Descent (Page 3)

World Celebrities of Vietnamese Descent

These are the celebrities that have achieved worldwide fame.  We honor them for introducing the world to the Vietnamese heritage, for they are of Vietnamese descent.  These celebrities should be given credit for being ambassadors of Vietnamese performance arts to the world. And for that, we salute all of you.  Thank you for all your contributions and giving us Vietnamese pride. 

Featured Celebrities on World Celebrities of Vietnamese Descent (Page 3): 

Maggie Q, France Nuyen, Dat Nguyen, Christy Chung, Betty Nguyen, Olivia Munn, Leslie, Bach Yen, Marcel Nguyen, Lance Krall, Yohan Cabaye, Dustin Nguyen, Kieu Chinh

Maggie Q (1979-     ) American actress and former model of Irish, Polish and Vietnamese descent, Maggie Q has become a major star of Hong Kong cinema and is now making her way into Hollywood.
Born in Hawaii to an Anglo-American father of Irish and Polish descent and a Vietnamese mother, Maggie Quigley left home at the age of 17 to pursue a modeling career in Tokyo.  After a couple years of modeling primarily in Tokyo and then Taipei, Maggie relocated to Hong Kong.  It was there that she would get her big break when Jackie Chan selected her as his protégée and personally trained her for a film career in martial arts.

After landing a role on the hugely popular Hong Kong TV drama, "House of the Dragon", in 1998, Maggie Q made a name for herself in Hong Kong.  A film debut would follow in 2000 when she appeared as Anna in the horror film, "Model from Hell".  Since then, Maggie Q has starred in a string of major Hong Kong films including "Gen-Y Cops", "Manhattan Midnight", "Rush Hour 2", "Naked Weapon", "Rice Rhapsody", and "Three Kingdoms:  Resurrection of the Dragon".  In 2006, Maggie Q made her Hollywood film debut starring alongside Tom Cruise in "Mission:  Impossible III".  Since landing the lead role on the CW series, "Nikita", which ran from 2010 to 2013, Maggie Q has become a household name in the United States.  As an actresss of film and television, Maggie Q continues to flourish maintaining a successful dual career in Hong Kong and Hollywood.



Maggie Q on Twitter

France Nuyen (1939-     ) was born to a French mother and Vietnamese father in Marseilles, France.  France Nuyen started out as a model when she was discovered by Life magazine photographer, Philippe Halsman in 1955.  Three years later, she would begin her career as an actress landing the role of Liat in the film, "South Pacific".  That same year, France Nuyen would also play the lead role in a theatrical production of "The World of Suzie Wong".  She was originally casted for the film adaptation with the same name, instead the role went to another Eurasian actress, Nancy Kwan.  It has been said that right before shooting for the film version of "Suzie Wong" were to take place, Nuyen was going through a break-up with actor Marlon Brando, causing her to overeat and gain excessive weight which caused her to be replaced by Kwan.  Her first marriage was to Dr.  Thomas Gaspar Morell (1963-1966) that produced a daughter, Fleur.  Nuyen would later marry actor Robert Culp in 1967.  However, that marriage also ended in divorce in 1970. 

Throughout the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, France Nuyen starred in many movies and made numerous appearances on television shows.  Her most notable television appearances included episodes of "Hawaii Five-O" and as Elaan of Troyus on a memorable episode of "Star Trek".  In the 1980s, France Nuyen joined the cast of "St. Elsewhere" and remained on the series until its cancellation in 1988.  Among her most famous films include "Satan Never Sleeps" (1962), "A Girl Named Tamiko" (1962), "Battle for the Planet of the Apes" (1973), "China Cry" (1990), and "The Joy Luck Club" (1993).

France Nuyen as Liat in "South Pacific" (1958)

In 1986, France Nuyen earned her master's degree in clinical psychology.  She was honored with a Woman of the Year award in 1989 for her psychological work.  Now in her seventies, Nuyen remains active appearing in films and television.




France Nuyen as Elaan of Troyus in "Star Trek"

 

 Dat Nguyen (1975-     ) is the very first Vietnamese-American to be recognized by the NFL as a professional football player.  Born to Vietnamese parents at a refugee center at Fort Chafee in Fort Smith, Arkansas on September 25, 1975, Dat Nguyen had actually been conceived in Vietnam.  Both of his parents were former nationals of South Vietnam who had fled their homeland immediately after the Fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975.  Dat's mother was already four months pregnant with him at the time when she fled Vietnam to resettle in the United States.  Eventually Dat's parents would settle in Rockport, Texas which is where he grew up.  During his high school years at Rockport-Fulton High School, Dat excelled in competitive sports and played for his high school football team as middle linebacker.  After graduating from high school, Dat elected to enroll at Texas A&M University on a scholarship.  As a college football player, Dat played linebacker from 1995 until 1998 for the Texas A&M Aggies football team.  After being named Aggies MVP of the year in 1997, in the following year which would also be his last year of college football, Dat Nguyen would become a career record holder in Texas A&M University with a total of  517 career tackles.

Upon being drafted by the Dallas Cowboys in 1999, Dat Nguyen turned professional.  He remained a team member of Dallas Cowboys as linebacker for a total of seven seasons.  In the year 2005, Dat Nguyen suffered a serious neck injury which then placed him on the injured reserved list for the NFL team and ultimately led to his retirement from the NFL on March of the following year.  However, his association with the Dallas Cowboys was far from over as in the year 2007 Dat Nguyen would begin a new career as an NFL coach and was hired by the Dallas Cowboys' head coach, Wade Phillips, as the NFL team's assistant linebackers coach and defensive quality control coach.  Finally, in the year 2010, Dat Nguyen's lengthy professional association with the Dallas Cowboys came to an end when he became the inside linebackers coach for Texas A&M University's Aggies College Football team, a position he held until the end of the 2011 season.

Married to his high school sweetheart, Dat Nguyen and his wife, Becky, have three daughters.  Most recently, Dat Nguyen embarked on yet another new career, as radio sports show host.  In 2012, he started co-hosting with Jasson Minnix on an afternoon sports talk program in San Antonio, Texas on KZDC.






Christy Chung (1970-     ) is a former major actress of Hong Kong movies and television.  Born in Montreal, Canada to Chinese-Vietnamese parents, Christy Chung grew up speaking only French and Vietnamese as her native languages.  She would later on learn English while attending school in Canada.  During her senior year at Université du Québec à Montreal, Chung won the Miss Chinese Montreal beauty pageant which would take her to Hong Kong in January of 1993 to compete in the 1992 Miss International Chinese beauty pageant held annually there.  Despite her inability to speak in either Cantonese or Mandarin at the time, Chung was crowned Miss International Chinese.  Soon after wining the coveted beauty
pageant title, Chung began receiving offers for work as an actress in Hong Kong-produced movies.  She would turn down an offer to become a national weather broadcaster for Société Radio-Canada from back home to pursue a career in Hong Kong cinema. 

After landing a major role in the Hong Kong film, The Bride With White Hair 2 (1993), Christy Chung quickly rose to prominence with Chinese movie-goer audiences.  Throughout the 1990s, she would star in over 30 films and worked with some of Hong Kong cinema's top leading men including Stephen Chow, Jet Li, and Jackie Chan.  Among her most popular Chinese-language films were The Defendor (1994), The Bodyguard from Beijing (1994), Samsara (2001), and The Medallion (2003). 

At the height of her popularity, Christy Chung was considered one of the most beautiful actresses of Hong Kong cinema.  Her status as a sex symbol was not only recognized in Hong Kong, but also in other parts of Asia, as well.  In 2000, Singapore's prestigious FHM magazine voted Christy Chung as Asia's sexiest woman.  In recent years, she has retired from the film industry, replacing her acting career with restaurateur.  Twice divorced, she is a mother to three daughters.  Christy Chung  currently resides in Beijing where she owns and manages her restaurant.  She is a multi-lingual polyglot fluent in French, English, Vietnamese, Cantonese and Mandarin.











Betty Nguyen (1974-     ) American network television news anchorwoman, currently for NBC and MSNBC since 2013.  Betty Nguyen was born in Saigon, South Vietnam in 1974.  Her father was a US military serviceman of Scottish descent, and her mother is Vietnamese.  She came to the United States on April 19, 1975, 11 days before the Fall of Saigon.  Nguyen graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a bachelor's degree in journalism.

Betty Nguyen has a long resumé as a television news anchor.  Before landing her position as news correspondent for CNN in 2004, she had worked for several CBS affiliates in Texas.  From 2004 until 2010, Nguyen worked for CNN as a correspondent and covered such major world events such as hurricane Katrina, the death of Pope Paul II, and the earthquake in Haiti.  After 6 years as the first Vietnamese anchorwoman for CNN, Nguyen joined CBS News and remained there until April of 2012 for 2 years.

In 2000, Betty Nguyen founded the Help the Hunger Foundation which helps poverty-stricken people of Vietnam.  The foundation was created after Nguyen and her family made their first trip back to Vietnam and witnessed the harsh conditions of the impoverished people there.

Betty Nguyen's Official Website
Help-The-Hungry.org

Olivia Munn (1980-     ) American actress, former model, television personality and author of Vietnamese, German and Irish descent, is best known for her film roles in Big Stan (2007), Date Night (2010), Iron Man 2 (2010), I Don't Know How She Does It (2011), and Deliver Us From Evil (2014).  Born in Oklahoma City, Olivia Munn had been raised primarily in Tokyo, Japan by her mother and stepfather who served in the US military.  It was in Tokyo that Olivia Munn started her career as a fashion model during her teenage years.  Her modeling career would continue on in her later years in the United States modeling for advertisements to promote products such as Nike, Pepsi and Neutrogena. She graduated from the University of Oklahoma where she majored in journalism and minored in Japanese and dramatic arts.  After a couple of brief stints as interns for an NBC affiliate in Tulsa, Oklahoma followed by Fox Sports Net, Olivia Munn set her sights on pursuing an acting career in Los Angeles.  

After landing several roles for major Hollywood-produced movies, Munn made the shift to television.  From 2006 until 2010,  she replaced Sarah Lane as co-host of the popular G4 Network program, Attack of the Show!, working alongside Kevin Pereira.  Before leaving G4 Network on December of 2010, Oliva Munn had made her debut on Comedy Central's The Daily Show, which would later on spark a bit of controversy when Irin Carmon, MSNBC national reporter and commentator of feminist issues, publicly criticized the production team of the popular show for being a sexist, male dominated establishment that had hired Munn based on her image as a sex symbol.  Carmon's criticism would be met with a group of 32 female staff members of The Daily Show who would publicly state their opposition, claiming that her opinions were based on misinformation and completely erroneous.  

On May of 2010, Olivia Munn added author to her list of careers when her book, Suck It, Wonder Woman:  The Misadventures of a Hollywood Geek, was published.  In her personal life, she has been romantically linked with Swedish actor, Joel Kinnaman, in the past.  And as of May, 2014, she has been dating Green Bay Packers quarterback, Aaron Rodgers.  

Olivia Munn on Twitter

Leslie (1985-     ) is a French pop singer,  born as Leslie Bourgouin to a Vietnamese-Polynesian father and French mother.  Although she had been born in Le Mans, France, throughout many of her years growing up, Leslie had lived with her family in Africa in Francophone countries such as Gabon and Togo.  Leslie first came to prominence with her first recorded studio album in 2002, Je Suis et Je Resterai, which sold a total of 120,000 copies and was certified gold by the Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique.  That success would be followed by her second studio solo album released in 2004, Mes Couleurs, which sold 220,000 copies and twice certified gold by the Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique.  Her album, L'amour en Vol (2006), was also awarded with a silver certification by the Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonograhique with a total of 100,000 copies sold.  Leslie also had recorded a compilation of popular cover songs from the 1980s for the album, Futur 80, released in 2008.  She has recorded a total of 6 solo studio albums.  Leslie's success in France has been compared to the equivalence of Brittney Spears and Christina Aguilera in the United States.

Blessed with good looks and a sultry voice, Leslie has become quite popular with the younger generation of French music lovers.  She continues to perform at sold out shows all over France and Europe.  Her last released studio album to date was Les Enfants de L'orage in 2012.  Leslie has had 5 singles hit the top 10 on the French music charts.  In addition, Leslie has also enjoyed international chart success with top 10 hit singles on music charts in countries such as Belgium and Switzerland.  Among her most popular songs include Sobri (Notre Destin), Et J'attends, Et Puis la Terre and L'Or de Nos Vies.

Leslie's Official Site








Bach Yen (1942-     ) is an acclaimed multilingual songstress originally from Vietnam.  Signed with Polydor Records at age 19, Bach Yen was the first Vietnamese recording artist to reach international prominence with her abilities to sing effortlessly in 6 different languages which include English, Italian, Spanish, Hebrew, and her two native, French and Vietnamese.  In the 1960s, she became a popular musical artist guest making appearances on various American television programs hosted by Ed Sullivan, Joey Bishop, Mike Douglas, Bob Hope, Pat Boone, and Bing Crosby, as well as Shindig. Bach Yen went on to share the stage with the likes of major worldly renowned entertainers such as Liberace, Frankie Avalon and Jimmy Durante on major concert live shows throughout the United States and other countries of both North and South American continents.  Being the first Vietnamese performer to tour the four major continents where she played to mostly non-Vietnamese audiences, Bach Yen would earn herself the title of being South Vietnam's unofficial ambassador of performing arts.  Bob Hope had introduced her on stage as the Cinderella from Saigon.

Her name translates as "White Swallow" in English.  Born in Soc Trang, a town located on the Mekong Delta, to an ethnic Chinese father and Vietnamese mother, Bach Yen started singing at the age of 9 when she joined the school of La Providence church choir in Can Tho, of which she had attended as a grade school student.  In 1953, Bach Yen traveled to Saigon where she competed and won first prize in a youth talent content.  Her prize winning entailed a weekly singing stint for a children's music program for a French broadcasting radio station located in Saigon.  The following year, the French would be defeated at the end of the First Indochina War which directly resulted in the French losing control of Vietnam as its colonial conquest.  For the French colonists that were living in Vietnam, this meant that the time had come to close up shop and return home.  For the little girl named Bach Yen, this was a sad time as the French-owned radio station which hosted the weekly children's program where she had been a principal performer would shut down.  This coupled with her parents' separation with her father moving to Phnom Penh leaving her mother alone to care for Bach Yen and her siblings in a small rented house in Saigon proved to be of challenging times.  To supplement the family income, Bach Yen along with two siblings and two cousins formed a circus act as motorcycle riders which had toured all across South Vietnam until a near fatal accident took place where she had fallen while on her motorcycle twelve feet to the ground.  After a long period of recovery, while only 14 years old Bach Yen embarked on a professional singing career when she landed her first steady gig as a nightly performer at a cabaret in Saigon called Truc Lam.  In a short amount of time, she had earned herself quite a reputation among the nightclub circuit of performers in Saigon which would allow her to grace the stages of the largest and most popular cabarets and venues in the city such as Tu Do and Hoa Binh.  At the tender age of 15, Bach Yen gained national recognition with her interpretation of what would become her signature Vietnamese song throughout her career, Dem Dong (Winter's Night), written by Nguyen Van Thuong. 

In 1961, Bach Yen left her native Vietnam for Paris, France to set her sights on pursuing an international music career.  While in Paris, she landed a steady gig performing nightly at the prestigious La Table du Mandarin.  This was the same cabaret venue that had also housed another performer of Vietnamese origin, Henri Salvador's protégé Tiny Yong, and to a lesser extent, Bich Chieu, who had gained prominence as a performer at nightclubs back in Saigon.  A contract with Polydor Records would shortly follow for Bach Yen where she would record three albums and appear on several music videos which aired on the then massively popular Scopitone, a jukebox of music videos and the European equivalent to MTV of today.  Unhappy with the popular style of music known as Ye-Ye Polydor had chosen for Bach Yen, after 3 years she decided to leave Paris and return to her native Vietnam where she would resume her career as one of the top performers in the most well known cabarets of Saigon. 

Bach Yen in the film,
 The Green Berets (1968), starring John Wayne.

Her return stay in Vietnam would not be for long, as she would receive an invitation from Ed Sullivan in 1965 to appear on his renowned show.  What was originally intended as a two week engagement in the United States resulted in her taking up residence there for a total of 12 years.  During the years spent in the United States, Bach Yen had become a popular guest on television variety shows and continued her career as a recording artist.  In 1968, Hollywood came calling when she was invited to make a cameo appearance in John Wayne's movie, The Green Berets.  Bach Yen also often played Vegas as a popular headliner performing alongside Liberace and toured extensively across the globe with some of the biggest names of mainstream American entertainers. 

Bach Yen on a Scopitone
music video for her hit song, Et a Bas La Rentree

Tran Quang Hai and Bach Yen

Upon returning to Paris in 1978, Bach Yen met up with renowned, accomplished Vietnamese ethnomusicologist, Tran Quang Hai.  This sparked a renewed interest of Vietnamese music in Bach Yen's career.  Upon becoming a wedded couple, the two have continued in collaborations focused on traditional Vietnamese folkloric music.  They have recorded and released a total of seven albums together and made over 3,000 recitals and concerts in five continents.  One of their albums, Vietnam, was awarded with the Grand Prix du Disque from the Academie de Charles Cros in 1983.  In 1994, Bach Yen recorded Souvenir, an album comprised of some of her most popular songs in her repertoire performed for live audiences throughout her career in 4 different languages:  French, English, Italian and Vietnamese.

Bach Yen on Wordpress
Tran Quang Hai's Official Website

Marcel Nguyen (1987-     ) is a two-times Olympic silver medalist gymnast born in Munich, Germany to a German mother and a Vietnamese father.  His placing in the all-around men's gymnastics competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics held in London was the first time in over 3/4 of a century that any German gymnast has won a medal in the all-around gymnastics category.

Nguyen began gymnastics at the age of four and at the age of seven joined TSV Unterhaching.  In 2005, he won the junior national championship in parallel bars in Germany.  For two consecutive years, Nguyen took home the gold medal in parallel bars at the European Games in 2010 and 2011.  At the Summer Olympics in 2012, he won the silver medals in both the parallel bars and the all-around men's gymnastics competitions.

Marcel Nguyen Official Website


Yohan Cabaye (1986-     ) is an internationally renowned French professional footballer.  His father, Didier Cabaye, had also been a professional footballer in France and is of French-Vietnamese mixed heritage.  Born in Tourcoing, France, Cabaye began his career as a footballer at the age of 6 when he joined his hometown club, Tourcoing FC.  After 6 years playing competitively as a youth for Tourcoing FC, Cabaye turned professional and first signed a three-year contract with Lille Club in 2004 which was extended until 2011.  After leaving the Lille Club, he played for Newcastle United for three years.  Since 2013, Yohan Cabaye has been playing for the Paris Saint-Germain club as midfielder.  In his professional career, he has earned 30 caps and has represented France in UEFA Euro 2012 and the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Yohan Cabaye is currently married to his wife, Fiona.  Together, the couple have two daughters. Cabaye has publicly stated that he would like to one day visit the country of Vietnam and possibly contribute to football there.

Yohan Cabaye Official Website


Lance Krall (1970-    ) is an American comedian and actor most famous for his portrayal of "Kip", the role of a flamboyant Cuban homosexual, on Spike TV's The Joe Schmo Show, during the first season in 2003.  A film and theater major from Georgia State University, after graduating Krall co-founded The Whole World Theater in Atlanta where he performed and wrote scripts for many plays from 1993-2000.  Prior to The Joe Schmo Show, Krall landed roles in feature films, Made Up (2002), Juwanna Mann (2002) and Party Animals (2003), in which he starred in as well as directed.


His massive popularity from The Joe Schmo Show led to Spike TV's decision to pick up 8 episodes for the first season of The Lance Krall Show in 2005.  Krall was creator, writer, director, executive producer and editor of his self-titled comedy show.  After The Lance Krall Show, came Free Radio which aired for two seasons in 2008-2009 originally on VH1, then later also aired on Comedy Central and Super Channel of Canada.  Similar to his previous show, Krall was creator, writer, executive producer and editor of Free Radio.  At present, he is a writer on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, a popular sitcom which airs on the FXX Channel.

Lance Krall in his comedy show, Free Radio (2008-2009)

Born into a military family, his father having been a US Naval aviator, for the first 13 years of his life, Lance was forced to relocate from place to place all around the country as well as abroad.  Finally, his father retired from the military and the family settled in Georgia in 1983.  Krall's mother, Yung Krall, is originally from Vietnam and had been a spy for the CIA.  Since 2008, he has been married to his wife, Brittany, and together they have two children, Lyla and Ronin.

LanceKrall.com

Dustin Nguyen (1962-     ) is an American actor of Vietnamese origin.  Born in Saigon to Vietnamese actors, Xuan Phat and My Le, Dustin Nguyen along with his family fled Vietnam for the United States in 1975 after the Fall of Saigon.  He graduated from Garden Grove High School and attended Orange Coast College where he majored in mass communications.  Dustin Nguyen was casted in 21 Jump Street alongside Johnny Depp and Holly Robinson in 1987.  During his tenure on the popular Fox Network television show, Nguyen had become an American teen heartthrob.

After 21 Jump Street, Dustin Nguyen has appeared in numerous films such as Heaven and Earth (1993), Little Fish (2005), The Rebel (2007) and Saigon Eclipse (2007).

In 2001, Dustin Nguyen married actress Angela Rockwood, a quadriplegic.  He has since separated from his wife.

DustinTriNguyen.com


Kieu Chinh (1939-     ) is a Vietnamese-American film actress who started her career in Saigon with her debut film, Hoi Chuong Thien Mu (The Bells of Thien Mu Temple) (1957).  She would go on to star in over 30 films while in South Vietnam.  Born in Hanoi, the eldest of two daughters, Kieu Chinh resettled in Saigon in 1954.  While in Vietnam, Kieu Chinh had set up her own film production company, Giao Chi Film Productions, which had produced her most popular Vietnamese film, Nguoi Tinh Khong Chan Dung (Faceless Warrior) (1971).  She had also starred in A Yank in Vietnam (1964) and Operation C.I.A. (1965), opposite Burt Reynolds.  For many years, Kieu Chinh had also hosted a television show in Vietnam where she conducted interviews of popular international actors and actresses.

In 1975, while on set in Singapore to shoot a movie, Kieu Chinh's world came to a shattering halt as the North Vietnamese conquered South Vietnam.  She resettled in the United States and resumed her acting career with an appearance on an episode of MASH in 1977.  Kieu Chinh has since landed roles in films such as Hamburger Hill (1987), Riot (1997), Catfish in Black Bean Sauce (1999), Face (2002), and her most popular role as Suyuan in The Joy Luck Club (1993).   From 1989 until 1991, Kieu Chinh had a recurring role as Trieu An on China Beach.  

Kieu Chinh won an Emmy for her work on Kieu Chinh:  A Journey Home on KTTV in 1996. Together with journalist, Terry Anderson, she co-founded Vietnam Children's Fund, which has built schools in Vietnam attended by over 12,000 students.